South China Morning Post, Thursday January 9, 2003
Bali police cannot yet tie al-Qaeda to Jemaah Islamiah
The failure to prove a link between Osama bin Laden and the militant network may
cause Jakarta problems
By Jake Lloyd-Smith in Singapore
Indonesian police have not proved a link between Jemaah Islamiah - blamed for last
year's Bali bombings - and the al-Qaeda network, the nation's top police officer says.
The comments from General Da'i Bachtiar contradict security assessments made by
Washington, Canberra and regional governments including Singapore's.
They may also raise doubts about the thoroughness of the police investigation of the
Bali blasts, and shake the international consensus that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda
- blamed for the September 11, 2001, atttacks on the US - often operates through a
network of localised, associate groups.
Addressing an investment promotion conference in Singapore yesterday, General Da'i
said his forces had not yet reached any conclusion about Jemaah Islamiah's alleged
global linkages. "We haven't come to any conclusion yet whether there is a link
between Jemaah Islamiah and al- Qaeda. That will depend on the co-operation that we
have with other law enforcement agencies in Malaysia, Singapore and the
Philippines," the general said.
He criticised media coverage of the atrocity, saying that it had contributed to
Indonesia's poor international image. But the general also said the October blasts in
the resort town of Kuta - which left nearly 200 people dead - had "brought about
blessings in disguise" for the world's most populous Muslim country. Among these
were a "good lesson for both Indonesia's leaders and its people to actively take part in
combating terrorism".
General Da'i maintained, somewhat perversely, that the attacks had "changed the
world's negative view of Indonesia, which has been based on its alleged lack of
seriousness in combating terrorism".
After the attacks, thousands of Indonesian security officers, and foreign colleagues,
launched an intensive investigation. In a matter of weeks, police arrested 16 suspects,
including a 40-year-old mechanic, Amrozi, who confessed to organising the attacks.
Indonesian police have said many of those arrested belonged to Jemaah Islamiah,
which they said had extensive links across Southeast Asia. They said at least one
suspect had trained in bomb-making during visits to Afghanistan, the global base for
al-Qaeda before the US-led war against Kabul's Taleban government.
This week, police handed a three-volume dossier of evidence against Amrozi and
others to prosecutors, and said they were very confident of a guilty verdict.
The swiftness of the arrests won Indonesia international praise, but the police chief's
assertion may rile some of Jakarta's staunchest supporters.
The comments came two days ahead of the publication in Singapore of a government
white paper on Jemaah Islamiah, the city-state's investigations of the group, and the
regional threat it is said to pose.
Officials in Singapore have often linked al-Qaeda to the Jemaah Islamiah, a
conclusion that is expected to be repeated in this week's dossier.
Wong Kan Seng, Singapore's home affairs minister, spelt out last year that he
believed Jemaah Islamiah was closely associated with al-Qaeda. "What has made
this JI terrorist group so different from previous groups is the impact of al-Qaeda. It
was the exposure of JI leaders in Afghanistan to al-Qaeda training which radicalised
them, because they not only imbibed al-Qaeda's sophisticated terrorist tradecraft but
its ideology of global jihad," Mr Wong said.
Expert on terrorism Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based academic, concluded this
week that al-Qaeda "will increasingly rely on its global terrorist network of like-minded
groups". Mr Gunaratna listed Jemaah Islamiah as one of its regional associates.
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